Council bid to halt construction

Leesha McKenny

One of Australia’s largest developers has spent six months building a series of inner Sydney apartment towers it is accused of not having full approval to build.

Meriton and the City of Sydney are now facing off in a courtroom, after the council sought an urgent injunction when it claimed the company refused to stop work.

The NSW Land and Environment Court will decide next week whether to force more than 300 workers to down tools at the Waterloo site, where billionaire Harry Triguboff is building 355 apartments across five towers soaring up to 25 storeys high.

Council said the ‘‘serious and significant breach’’ was uncovered during inspections by its staff about two weeks ago.

‘‘Excavation work, construction of basement car parking and building work up to 10 storeys on a number of buildings has been completed without the necessary approvals being obtained,’’ a spokesman said. ‘‘The City will not tolerate developers who fail to respect these requirements.’’

The property giant was granted development consent for the project last year, as well as approval for some preliminary work, but not the construction certificate that is required before building could actually begin.

Advertisement

According to affidavits read out at Friday’s hearing, it was the site’s senior project manager, Shener Dursun, who failed to lock in this disputed approval.

The court was told Mr Dursun attempted to resolve the problem without telling anyone at the company for fear of losing his job.

But he was forced to personally break the news Mr Triguboff – his 81-year-old boss and company founder – after council sent an email to Meriton’s ‘‘very surprised’’ general manager, Peter Spira, on May 22.

‘‘Harry, I do not know how to tell you this,’’ Mr Dursun began, according to his account of the meeting read out to the court.

‘‘What do you mean,’’ Mr Triguboff had reportedly responded. ‘‘We’ve been building for six months.’’

The court was told many of the site’s workers would be out of work if the site shut down; one subcontractor would face possible bankruptcy.

Mr Dursun, despite offering to resign for the ‘‘extremely difficult situation I had placed the Meriton Group in’’, has held on to his job with a final warning.

Council said its senior staff had met with the company twice and ‘‘provided an opportunity for them to voluntarily stop building works’’ before resorting to the legal action.

The council spokesman said it was of the ‘‘strong view’’ that work should stop until all necessary approvals had been obtained.

A construction certificate, a requirement for most developments, confirms that building plans are consistent with the development consent, all state agency approvals have been finalised, and issues such as the remediation of contaminated land resolved.

‘‘Ensuring that developers comply with the law, do not cut corners and maintain construction standards and public safety are important responsibilities for all councils,’’ the spokesman said.

Meriton’s Mr Spira said the company had twice been to court at the council’s instigation in respect to this matter and had not been instructed to stop.

‘‘We have built in accordance with the approved plans and this has been certified by an independent building consultant. We believe that these minor outstanding matters will be resolved in a relatively short time and leave the final decision in the court’s hands,’’ he said.